The adaptation of wood or plastic toilet seats having plastic or metal hinges and fittings to a porcelain toilet bowl, invariably leads to some play in the attachment between the seat hinge brackets and the bowl. Due to manufacturing tolerances and flow during baking, the porcelain bowls will always vary somewhat from one another, and allowance is made for this fact by providing relatively large holes for the seat and cover hinge mounting brackets. Such variation between individual units can also be seen in the differing shapes and slopes of the bowl rims of finished toilets.
Further, typically the brackets, fittings and fasteners are formed of some type of plastic, which precludes sufficient tightening of the fasteners to positively secure the fittings to the bowl without possibility of slippage. Attempting such tightening leads to the stripping of the threads or other damage to the relatively soft plastic fittings.
The result of the above relatively loose tolerances and soft fasteners is that frequently a toilet seat and accompanying lid or cover will be relatively loosely attached to the back of the bowl, with the attachment allowing a relatively larger amount of lateral arcuate play near the front of the seat and lid relative to the bowl. The standard plastic or rubber bumpers installed upon the bottom of a toilet seat serve to prevent the marring of the underlying bowl rim, but do little or nothing to prevent the lateral slippage of the seat relative to the rim. In fact, the relatively small bumpers may even encourage such slippage or play, due to their relative height in combination with the possibly sloped and/or curved low friction surface of the bowl rim.
The seat and lid may tend to align properly with the bowl rim when no pressure is placed upon them, but often such appearance of alignment is illusory, is when a person places his or her weight upon the seat or lid, the seat bumpers will shift laterally on the bowl rim and the seat will also shift an inch or so and drop down to rest directly upon the bowl rim. This action is disconcerting to say the least, even when one knows the characteristics of a specific toilet and is aware of the above possibility. While the result may be humorous to some persons, the elderly or infirm using such a toilet may be startled to the point of losing their balance and slipping from the seat, thus possibly risking serious injury.
The need arises for retainers installable to the bottom surface of a toilet seat, and providing for the lateral security of the seat relative to the bowl rim. The retainers must be formed to positively grip the inner and outer edges of the rim, and further must provide some angular resilience in order to accommodate bowl rims having different slopes.